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[Hardwood11]

I get a kick out of the term rec ground. Most of it is small farm ground that didn't make it through the 80's. The large crop farmers bought these farms and took the best land for crops; then sold off parcels that weren't worth their trouble to tile or terrace. These drainages or poor soil acres are now considered rec ground for whitetail hunting. I remember when you could purchase such land for as little as $200 an acre. Today everybody wants to grow whitetails in Iowa. Rec ground will get what ever the richest fools are willing to pay. If farmers weren't interested in investing into this rec ground with $7 corn; it will make little difference with $3 corn. This rec ground land is not driven by crop prices or farmland value.

How do you explain the rec ground price retreat in the past? In 2008 the market was terrible. I bought a farm in Ringgold for $1700 acre (60% tillable and crp)
Within a few years corn went to $7 and the farm jumped to 3k an acre.

When a farm is 50% timber and 50% crop you don't think higher crop prices and cash rents affects the prices of hunting land??
Not always so called rich fools buying this stuff!

 

[Jdubs]

Grasshopper: If you don't buy land as soon as you can, not doing so waiting for the big decline, in 5 years you'll say, "I wish I would have purchased land 5 years ago. " I guarantee.

 

[Sligh1]

I know hundreds of guys probably that own "rec land" & maybe 70-80% I wouldn't consider rich. I do think they are smart investors. Similar land "rec land" "junk mixed land" east a state or 2 is often bringing 3-6k/acre. Get that "junk ground" out east and you can run into it for $10k an acre & it doesn't grow the corn, beans and alfalfa the stuff around here does. over the LONG RUN I am extremely confident IA land (in lower price areas and rougher areas) are underpriced and almost any other state to east or north that's similar brings more (again, east coast, lower Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, etc). Underpriced. I personally don't think someone buying stuff that's fundamentally underpriced is a fool. Yes, it's my opinion it's underpriced. My "rec ground" has 100+ acre swaths of 60-70 CSR ground that is not hard to farm at all. Even the rough stuff, 30-40 acres & rougher CSR, I sure don't mind running over it and still raises some nice yields. If I didn't want to mess with it, ok, throw into CRP at $160-210/acre in my area & enjoy both the big bucks & the income.

 

[Jdubs]

Sligh, you are a wise man. The term "rec" is a valid term applying to an entire different category of buyer. Iowa is incredibly underpriced and is/will catch up to the rest of the market established in other states. I have owned land in Iowa and other states for 23 years and have never experienced a significant decline in pricing. The term "junk" is relative in that hunting property provides hunting and entertainment value to many who consider outdoor recreation a valuable personal/family activity. Junk land is what the Midwest considers untillable, but it holds value to other folks for various reasons. Again, continue to wait for significant decline and you won't own land.

 

[letemgrow]

So what are you saying is going to get to $1200-1700? Just set aside junk timber? Or a 120 with 40 acres of tillable that has $10,000 in income?? Both are Rec/combo farms.


How many of you that own farms intend on selling your property in this type of environment? Or in the next 2 years for that matter? I doubt that there are too many. I truly believe that the supply of "rec" property in the next two years will keep this thing in check for those properties that actually transact.

Farms will stay high if that 10,000 income is of the guaranteed variety and interest rates stay low. Different areas have different base prices, or lowest prices to start with. I'll say we are headed back towards the "base" prices. Land in my area sold for 1750 in the 70's, then 18% interest made it 250 per acre in the 80's. Now its up past 1750 again. Not saying we will ever see anything close to 250 per acre again, just shows the trends. Those $3000 acre farms could be $1500...

 

[QDM]

Without starting a new thread I figured I'd bring this back to the top with a question. Anybody have any recent experience approaching a landowner about buying a piece of ground? I'm curious what would be a fair offer for both parties based on the information below.

~15 acres
A fair amount of road frontage
Front half pasture/Back half timber
No food plots/management established
It's rough with a deep/wide creek running through
SE Ia
No structures

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Hardwood11]

Without starting a new thread I figured I'd bring this back to the top with a question. Anybody have any recent experience approaching a landowner about buying a piece of ground? I'm curious what would be a fair offer for both parties based on the information below.

~15 acres
A fair amount of road frontage
Front half pasture/Back half timber
No food plots/management established
It's rough with a deep/wide creek running through
SE Ia
No structures

Thanks for any advice!

Offer $2500 acre, he will probably want 3k an acre since it is a smaller parcel. Good luck!

 

[Sod Savage]

If there are any beef cattle farmers in the neighborhood, it shouldn't go for under 3 grand. They know it won't go to zero and if they can make some pretty good money off of it for the 3-5 years they will be setting the pace. So called rec ground around here will be called pasture.

 

[QDM]

The property really doesn't have any functional fencing whether that makes much difference or not?

 

[Sod Savage]

For that 15 acres QDM its really too small for a cattle guy, my comments were for the tracts 40 acres and bigger. As far as what to offer that guy, i guess it just depends on what you can afford, there won't probaby be much income potential there so resale is going to stink. Unless its smack dab in the middle of some great neighbors I would probably save my money for something else or offer him way less than he would take. But thats just me.

 

[BJohnson]

I would agree with the $2500 if it were larger. A parcel that size could be a candidate for an acreage/residence location. Those parcel sizes seem to draw a higher price/acre than say a 30 - 60+ acre tract.